Violence against children as a special object for the statistical research

Abstract

Despite the numerous achievements and success in various spheres of human activity, the modern civilization, unfortunately, has not yet been able to completely get rid of such a serious and shameful problem as violence against children. Not only in economically backward and developing countries, where numerous forms of infringement of the children’s rights have deep historical roots, but in the vast majority of the most developed countries of the world, violence against children has now acquired massive and catastrophic proportions. If we follow the ancient wisdom, that the maturity of any society emerges fully in terms of the relations that have developed in it with regard to the elderly and children, then a rather simple conclusion is drawn: the earth population has not yet reached the understanding of a number of eternal and simple truths. After all, any violent actions committed against children at present create objective and subjective prerequisites for the further reproduction of such actions in the future, but in relation to even younger generations. In this context, it is quite obvious that there is an urgent need to unite the efforts of the world community, states and individual citizens to stop and actively pursue any violent actions against children not only within the framework of existing legislation, but also in everyday life, where the moral support or condemnation are of great practical importance. In addition, there is an urgent need to develop special international and state projects and programs, aimed at protecting children’s rights and protecting them from any form of physical and spiritual violence. It is difficult to imagine a deep substantive justifi cation of any measures to eliminate violence against children as a negative phenomenon of public life without a comprehensive quantitative description of such a unique object of research, which by defi nition is impossible without detailed and reliable statistical information. At present, obtaining such information causes great difficulties, which, naturally, creates additional obstacles to the knowledge of the true extent of the spread and consequences of the violence against children. For the above reasons, it is of great scientific and practical interest to improve the methodological foundations of statistical research on violence against children, implying both a clear interpretation of the subject of cognition and the development of a modern system of indicators that allows displaying various aspects of such a complex and negative social phenomenon.